Correct Answer: ♥A

The lead suggests that West doesn't have ♥KQJ (otherwise they'll lead the ♥K). Play the Ace and if Hearts are 5-2, you'll block hearts for your opponents:

After winning with the ♦A: If West plays a low Heart, East won't have a small heart to play back after winning the ♥Q. And if West plays the ♥K – East's ♥Q will fall on it and you'll be able to later win ♥10.

If you play low at trick one, West will win with the ♥Q, return a heart, and the defense will get 4 hearts and the ♦A. If Hearts are 4-3, you'll always lose 3 Hearts and the ♦A, so make 9 tricks.

3) Sitting South, you play 3NT. West leads the ♠2 (4th best). What do you do?

Correct Answer: ♠A

You must win the trick and try the Diamond finesse. The lead means Spades are 4-4 (the ♠2 lead, 4th best, means there are 3 cards higher than the 2 and 4 cards in that suit). You can afford to lose 3 Spades and 1 Diamond. If you hold up - you won't survive a Heart switch: East will win the Spade, switch to the ♥K and you'll go down (if you duck Hearts twice - opponents will continue Spades).

4) You're playing 7♠ and West leads a club. What do you do?

STOP! Count your tricks. If Spades aren't 5-0, you already have 13 tricks. So if you automatically take the free finesse for the 14th trick – you'll go down as you have no quick entry to hand to finish pulling out the trumps after taking ♠AQ. If you try to overtake or ruff a Diamond to come back to hand - you'll promote a trump trick for West.

So, win the ♣A, cash ♠AQ, return to hand with the ♣K, pull the rest of the trumps and claim 13 tricks (discard your Club and Heart losers on the Diamonds).

5) You're playing 6♠ and West leads a Club. What do you do?

Ruff with the ♠A(!) at trick 1 and play spades. Doing so means you can pull out trumps without losing control. You make 4 Spades, 1 Club ruffed, 5 Diamonds, 1 Club and 1 Heart = 12 tricks.

If you ruff low, cash the ♠A and then ♥A and a heart ruff to return to hand to play another Spade – East will get the ♠K and play another heart. You would need to ruff again and thereby lose control over the hand, as west would now have more trumps than you.

If you win trick 1 with the ♣A (= discard ♥) then if you try the Spade finesse you'll lose control as before (same if you ruff Club and play ♠A) and if you take ♣A and play ♠A and Spade – You'll lose the ♠K and another Club.

6) You're playing 3NT. West leads the ♠6 and East follows with the ♠Q. What do you play?

If you win it with the ♠K and the Diamond finesse fails, East will return a Spade and you'll lose another 4 Spade tricks.

You must therefore let the ♠Q win at trick 1 and then play low at trick 2! If you cover the ♠J at trick 2, West will let you win (!) to preserve a 3rd Spade in East's hand. Then, when East gets the hand with the ♦K, they'll play back their 3rd Spade and the defense will get 3 more Spade tricks.

When you hold up twice, keeping ♠KJ, you manage to cut communication in case East gets the lead. By doing so the defense win just 3 Spades and the ♦K.

It would be different if the ♦A is in your hand and dummy holds the ♦QJ10xx. The finesse would be to West's direction. If it's the case, then it would be safe to take ♠K at trick one as the ♠J would protect you from a Spade continuation if the finesse loses and West wins the trick:

7) You're playing 3NT and West leads the ♣5. What do you do?

If you automatically take the free finesse, East will cover with the ♣Q. When you take the ♣A, West can hold up their 1st Diamond and you are down as your hand is dead. In addition, holding up your ♣A won't save you, as opponents can duck a Spade now and you'll lose the ♦K and 3 spade tricks later. So, Wake Up! Count your tricks! 4 diamond tricks will do the job. Win the ♣K at trick 1 and run the ♦J. West can win the ♦K on the 2nd round but you still have the ♣A to enter your hand and enjoy your Diamonds.

Note that the ♣5 lead could be 4th best, promising an honor (the ♣Q) OR, as here 2nd best, DENYING an honor.

8) South plays 3NT. Partner leads the ♠9 to your bidden Spade suit. Declarer plays low from dummy. What do you do?

10) South plays 3NT and partner leads the ♥J. What do you do?

Correct Answer: ♥A

As South opened 1NT, it's obvious that the ♥J is partner's only point. So, the only way to beat the contract is to kill the dummy. Win the ♥A and play the ♠J. Dummy will win with the ♠Q (otherwise you'd continue Spades) but when they try Diamonds, you hold up twice (partner can help with giving count, showing doubleton). Declarer now only has 1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 3 Clubs, and 2 Diamonds. They can make if declarer guesses the situation right - you'll get end played with their 4th Club, see below (click NEXT) to see how it might go: